Florida: For years, people have been complaining about Delcie Cullin, director of K94U Dog Rescue, hoarding animals

Apparently people have been complaining FOR YEARS about this rescue. So when you read their Facebook pleas that they are only dumping their animals back at the shelters they pulled them from because of a "zoning issue", don't believe it. These people need to be shut down. 

Dog Rescue Reviewer said 4 years ago:
Delcie Cullin (aka Dilcinea Cullin, Dilcie Cullin, Delci Cullin, Dilcimar Barbosa), who is the founder and director of K94U Rescue, was keeping the animals in a barn with no air conditioning until there was a court order against her. She also stole a dog from one family because she felt the family did not deserve the dog; she then had the dog groomed so that he wouldn't look the same; changed his name; and then adopted it out to another family. Furthermore, she refused to adopt out several dogs to very nice families for no good reason. Finally, I went to several people who attest to the fact that this organization is not good to adopt from and they also have several issues with Delcie herself. There is a store whose two managers both claim that Delcie attempted to take food from another organization and she had to be told many times to not take the food. There are other employees and managers of a bigger pet store who would rather not work with her ever again; and then there are several dissatisfied volunteers who have complained with these same people - both about the organization and Delcie Cullin herself. Her organization should be shut down and the dogs should be given to another organization whose reputation is much better than this one's.

Sandier said 2 years ago:
Not honest, poorly managed and dogs are neglected! This is a terrible organization poor treatment to the dogs and mismanagement lots of dogs are kep in Delcie house way over the limit, others are kept on small cages at a vet office in Taramac, I checked this org nonprofit status and they have not file since 2010 with IRS and they are currently not iin active non profit status database list. Stay away from them, get involve with another organization that is honest!

 

This complaint was on another Facebook page dated 2014:

This person posted a complaint on Facebook in 2012 regarding a German Shepherd they had adopted from Delcie Cullin. They stated that Delcie Cullin had raised a lot of money from a "chip-in" fund (similar to a GoFundMe account), but refused to transfer all the funds to them for the dog's care:

"...And you all helped. And we were so grateful. Except Delcie did not give us all of the money from the chip-in. And she has not accounted for any of the donations that were mailed.

"Funny thing was, the adoption agreement I signed said we had to agree to provide Hummer high quality food, be kept inside, given flea, tick and heartworm preventative, kept up to date on all vaccinations, and given medical attention when needed. None of which Delcie provided for him while in her care.

"We are certainly not experts on how things are handled in the rescue community, but this CAN'T be it. If we have our way Delcie has "saved" her last dog. We don't want what happened to Hummer to happen to any other dog."

FLORIDA -- The director of a dog-rescue business has been ordered to remove all dogs from its Parkland property within seven days after the dogs were found to be stacked in small cages.

 

 

According to an incident report, a Coral Springs fire inspector visited the Broward Sheriff's Office Parkland district office on Thursday to report the business that she believed had unhealthy conditions for the animals.

Inspector Lici Merrit told deputies that she was conducting an inspection at the K94U Dog Rescue at 6901 NW 84th Ave. and noticed an area that had many caged dogs.

Merrit acknowledged that the dogs appeared to be in good health and saw numerous medications for the dogs at the property. She said there was a strong animal smell, but did not notice any feces.

According to an incident report, deputies visited the dog rescue later in the day and found 40 to 60 dogs in stacked cages in a small barn-like structure.

 

 

All dogs appeared to be in good health visually, but were confined in a small space.

The dog rescue's director, Delcie Cullin, was ordered to remove the dogs from the property within seven days.

The video clip says that Cullin "lost" her license. The dog rescue's Facebook page says they are a 501c3 non-profit. However, a commenter on the Facebook page wrote: "You claim to be a 501c3 non profit and have it posted on your website and facebook but that that status was revoked by the IRS in Feb 2013. This non profit corporation was dissolved in Sept 2015."


FindTheCompany 501c3 Lookup:
Officer Name: Andrea Phenes
Officer Address: 9558 Eden Manor, Parkland, FL 33076
EIN: 205590817
Year exemption status granted: 2007

K94u Rescue Inc. is no longer registered with the IRS. Their tax exempt status was revoked on May 15, 2012

This is where K94U Dog Rescue was originally registered

This is where Delcie Cullin and her husband live - while they collect
your donations for the animals they're 'saving'

This address is registered to Delcie Cullin and her husband Thomas Cullin and is worth almost a million dollars.Obviously the animals weren't kept here.

CULLIN,THOMAS & DELCIE 

9558 EDEN MANOR 

PARKLAND, FLORIDA 33076

Delcie Barbosa Cullin
DOB: February 20, 1961
Her facebook page bio says she is the owner/president of K94U Rescue, that she lives in Coral Springs, Florida and is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Thomas W. Cullin
DOB: May 17, 1959

Posted on Facebook December 2015

This is where it gets confusing. Records show that on July 29, 2013, Bank of America purchased their house at 9558 Eden Manor, Parkland, Florida, for $201,300. The sellers are listed as: Broward County Circuit Court, Thomas Cullin, Dilcinea B Cullin. Was it part of a foreclosure? If so, why are they still listed as the owners and living at the residence?

In 2009, tax records show that they were living nearby at a house which was, at the time, valued at $634,300:

CULLIN,THOMAS & DELCIE
8106 EMERALD AVE
PARKLAND, FL 33076

At one time, Delcie and Thomas Cullin were listed as living at 8971 NW 33rd St, Pompano Beach, FL 33065.

Other people listed at this address are: Richard Cullin and Angie M. Cullin. However, when I searched for this address, nothing came up (as in, the address doesn't exist).

REALITY: This is where the animals were kept - locked in a barn in crates

Instead, the animals were locked in small crates inside a barn at 6901 NW 84th Avenue. According to the Broward County, Florida tax website, this property is owned by:

August A Ranno
Valerie Lee Ranno
AUGUST A & V J RANNO REV LIV TR
6901 NW 84TH AVE
PARKLAND, FL 33067-1014

A living trust? A living trust (sometimes called an "inter vivos" or "revocable" trust) is a written legal document through which your assets are placed into a trust for your benefit during your lifetime and then transferred to designated beneficiaries at your death by your chosen representative, called a "successor trustee."

So who are August (aka Augie Ranno) and Valerie Ranno? And what is their association with Delcie Cullin and her husband Thomas Cullin??? A phone number for the Rannos returns "Rannos Backhoe Service". Valerie Ranno is a retired Broward County School Board member.

I believe Valerie and Augie Ranno are Delcie Dullin's parents. A census form showed a Delcie Ranno. Another listing showed a Delena Ranno. It's such an unusual name that it's likely that it's her. How involved are they with this 'rescue'? Are they elderly parents who weren't really involved or are they actively involved in this seemingly criminal activity?

And who exactly is Andrea Phenes, who used to be the Vice President of K94U Rescue?

Related: 

School works to help animals (Sun Sentinel - Dec 7, 2008)
After the group's most recent fundraiser, Paws for Pups, they donated $4,000 to K94U Rescue.

Andrea Phenes is vice president of K94U Rescue. The organization was started in 2006 and she said they currently care for 60 dogs from Palm Beach County who have been abandoned, abused and neglected.

Phenes said their ultimate goal is to find someone to donate or rent them a shelter because the animals they care for are in foster care or kennels, which are very expensive.

PNA to raise funds for homeless dogs (Sun Sentinel - Jan 8, 2009)
Delcie Cullin, founder of K94URescue, sees it happening at an alarming rate. "When people lose their homes, they think about themselves first," said Cullin. "Most of them cannot take their pets along with them. The economy is not doing well at all and the problem with abandoned pets is growing worse."

The organization has yet to decide where the proposed facility will be, said Cullin, who is also a Parkland PNA member. "We are raising funds, we need $250,000. The facility will come up either in Coral Springs or Boca Raton."

The IRS needs to open an investigation into this group as they've been collecting donations for years under the guise that they are a non-profit. Where did the money go?

Although the video says they're moving the dogs to foster homes, the Facebook posts are basically begging people to take the dogs in or else they'll be dumped at a shelter -- the 'high kill' shelters they were originally pulled from!! They say the only reason the animals are at risk of being dumped at the shelter is because they aren't zoned properly -- instead of saying they were over their heads and out of control.

My questions are: who has been handing this woman and her group animals? Do they even check paperwork and verify? If someone says, "Oh give me five more dogs. I found homes for the last ten you gave me." I would first ask for proof - and then I would follow up by contacting those people. "Yes, hello. Did you adopt a male Beagle from K94U Rescue?" You also have to occasionally check the locations where these dogs are housed. Has anyone else gone inside this barn. Before this news story, did anyone at any of these shelters who are handing them animals know how many she had on the property?? Did anyone ever do any of this?

My other questions are to the people who work/volunteer for this 'rescue'. Did you not think that dogs stacked three-high in small cages in a barn is wrong? Did you know think that 40-60 dogs was more than your rescue group could handle? Was there any sort of board of directors or group voting before more animals were brought to the property?

This is classic hoarding in the making.

You are the hero. You show up at the 'high kill' shelter and take animals to find homes for them. People love you. They offer to bring you dogs rather than take them to the 'kill' shelter. You can't find homes for these animals any easier than the shelter can... so the animals start piling up. But you are like a gambling addict -- you can't stop. You like the praise you get from others for saving animals, you truly do love animals so you don't want to say no to the dog that is going to be euthanized tomorrow so you lie and tell people you have space for it. You bring it home, shove it in a crate in the barn and go back inside your house. You're already feeling anxious, knowing there is a never-ending amount of animals on death row so you sit down at your computer and begin checking Facebook to find that next death row animal that you can save. The cycle continues.

  

 

 
 

 

Anyone see a problem with one rescue having this many animals??
And this isn't even all of them!

Don't be too angry at these people if it is that they love animals so much that they overwhelmed themselves. If so, they have a mental illness. 

However, after doing all of this research, I'm starting to believe that the more sinister possibility is that they saw this as 'easy money'. Set up a non-profit, post some pictures of sad looking animals, sucker poor animal lovers into donating money - no questions asked. Get some well-intentioned volunteers to do all the work and take care of the animals while they funnel the donations to their own personal accounts and buy a million dollar house.

We should be angry at these shelters which were handing them animals - no questions asked. We need to be demanding that our local shelters have policies in place that require 1- proof that someone/group is a non-profit and that the person has not been convicted of animal cruelty, 2- that there is confirmed documentation of veterinary care being provided to animals which need it, 3- that there is confirmed documentation that animals given to these groups are indeed being adopted to new homes (and verified), 4- that home inspections are done and that every single animal that is supposed to be in the care of the rescue group is there, 5- that animals which are being fostered at other locations are truly at that location and their premises have been inspected, 6- the shelters need to be in touch with each other so that the people from rescue groups can't go "shelter shopping" and pull from different shelters without the shelters knowing.

From their website:

"K94U is an organization that began in 2006 after Delcie Cullin discovered Rachelle Grande in Miami. Rachelle was in desperate need of help. She was taking care of 20 dogs by herself, and when Delcie, and her husband Thomas, met her, they were inspired to help and K94U was born after all the necessary paperwork was filed. As a small organization, we help 50 dogs.

"Every dog deserves a loving home, and it is our sincerest wish that you may find your new best friend at our shelter. We pride ourselves on being able to find the best home for our beloved dogs, and so there is an application and interview requirement in which you meet the dog beforehand. After the adoption is complete, we do regular follow-ups to make sure that the best possible match was made.

"This adoption process is applied in order to ensure the new owner’s happiness, but most important, the dog’s well-being. We hope to grow in the area, and help the thousands of dogs that are in dire need of a home. Only with your support, will we be able to do so."

(Local10 - Jan 8, 2016)